The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Introduction

“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” includes several of Ernest Hemingway's important themes and introduces characters typical of his work.This is a story of a man's coming of age, but it also presents something of Hemingway's attitude toward “the code” for which he is famous, his views on women, and the value he placed on the life of action. Each of the main characters can illustrate one of these themes.

Discussion

Robert Wilson, the white hunter, is an archetypal Hemingway hero. He lives a life of action — a manly life — that is governed by a code that he never states, but which is his standard for judging his own as well as others' behavior. Sportsmanship, courage, and “grace under pressure” are the hallmarks of Wilson's behavior. His professionalism is more than simply an attitude; it is a philosophy that governs his life. To him, it is morally unthinkable that he might leave a dangerously wounded animal in the bush, talk about his clients behind their backs, or otherwise violate the unspoken contracts of his trade(Spilka, pp. 187-207). His philosophy, however, is expressed in action, not words, and he is suspicious of those who, like Macomber, ruin an experience by too much talk. He respects men who, like himself, can face danger courageously, certain that death is less to be feared than a coward's life.

Francis Macomber is described as one of “the great American boy-men,” the sort of men who are likely to remain immature throughout their lives.Untested under pressure, he “had probably been afraid all his life” until the buffalo hunt. In the buffalo hunt, things happen so fast that he does not have time for fear to manifest itself, and he is transformed by the event. As Wilson puts it, Macomber would “be a damn fire eater now. . . . More of a change than any loss of virginity. Fear gone like an operation. Something else grew in its place. Main thing a man had. Made him into a man. Women knew it too. No bloody fear.” The title of the story refers to those few minutes between the time Macomber shoots the three buffalo and the moment Margot's bullet crashes into his brain when he does savor life fully as a man.

Margot Macomber is perhaps the least attractive of Hemingway's women characters, many of whom share characteristics with her. She is spoiled, selfish, domineering, and castrating on the one hand, insecure and frightened on the other. Such women are able to control weak men, as Macomber was at the beginning of the story, but cannot work their wiles on the strong (Hutton, pp. 253-63). Wilson takes her casually in his tent partly because he shares her contempt for her husband. After Macomber's death, however, it is he who reminds her that she would have been left had she not killed him. The relationship between Macomber and Margot is based on their mutual weaknesses, and could not have survived his ...